The terrestrial Planet V hypothesis as the mechanism for the origin of the late heavy bombardment

Brasser, R.; Morbidelli, Alessandro

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117336

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In line with the model and results described in Sections 8 and 9, it is interesting to note that, in several other scenarios, the inclusion of additional planets during the early solar system seem to provide better results over standard models (Chambers, 2007;Ford and Chiang, 2007;Yeh and Chang, 2009;Brasser and Morbidelli, 2011;Nesvorny, 2011;Gomes and Soares, 2012). This suggests that a consistent model for the entire solar system should include not only the known terrestrial and giant planets, but also other massive planetary bodies that probably existed in large numbers at the end of planet formation.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Trans-Neptunian Objects as Natural Probes to the Unknown Solar System

Lykawka¹

2012

Monogr. Environ. Earth Planets

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Citation: Lykawka, P. S. (2012), Trans-Neptunian objects as natural probes to the unknown solar system, Monogr. Environ. Earth Planets, 1, 121-186, doi:10.5047/meep.2012.00103.0121. Abstract Trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) are icy/rocky bodies that move beyond the orbit of Neptune in a region known as the trans-Neptunian belt (or Edgeworth-Kuiper belt). TNOs are believed to be the remnants of a collisionally, dynamically and chemically evolved protoplanetary disk composed of billions of planetesimals, the building blocks from which the planets formed during the early solar system. Consequently, the study of the physical and dynamical properties of TNOs can reveal important clues about the properties of that disk, planet formation, and other evolutionary processes that likely occurred over the last 4.5 Gyr. In contrast to the predictions of accretion models that feature protoplanetary disk planetesimals evolving on dynamically cold orbits (with both very small eccentricities, e, and inclinations, i), in reality TNOs exhibit surprisingly wide ranges of orbital eccentricities and inclinations, from nearly circular to very eccentric orbits (putting some objects at aphelia beyond 1000 AU!) and ranging up to ∼50 deg of inclination with respect to the fundamental plane of the solar system. We can group TNOs into several distinct dynamical classes: (1) Resonant: TNOs currently locked in external Neptunian mean motion resonances; (2) Classical: non-resonant TNOs concentrated with semimajor axes in the range 37 < a < 45-50 AU on relatively stable orbits (which typically feature only minor orbital changes over time); (3) Scattered: TNOs on orbits that suffer(ed) notable gravitational perturbations by Neptune, yielding macroscopic orbital changes over time; (4) Detached: TNOs typically possessing perihelia, q > 40 AU, a > 45-50 AU and orbits stable over the age of the solar system. Several theoretical models have addressed the origin and orbital evolution of the main dynamical classes of TNOs, but none have successfully reproduced them all. In addition, none have explained several objects on peculiar orbits, or provided insightful predictions, without which a model cannot be tested properly against observations. Based on extensive simulations of planetesimal disks with the presence of the four giant planets and huge numbers of modeled planetesimals (reaching up to a million test particles or several thousand massive objects), I explore in detail the dynamics of the TNOs, in particular their (un)stable regions over timescales comparable to the age of the solar system, and the role of resonances across the entire trans-Neptunian region. I also propose that, along with the orbital history of the giant planets, the orbital evolution of primordial embryos (massive planetesimals comparable to Mars-Earth masses) can explain the fine orbital structure of the trans-Neptunian belt, the orbits of Jovian and Neptunian Trojans (objects moving about the L4/L5 Lagrange points of Jupiter and Neptune, respectively), and possibly the curr...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 77%

Trans-Neptunian Objects as Natural Probes to the Unknown Solar System

Lykawka¹

2012

Monogr. Environ. Earth Planets

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“…Of course, one of the strengths of the Nice Model is that it provides a natural explanation for the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) seen in the lunar crater record (Gomes et al 2005), and an early instability in the outer solar system reopens the puzzle of the LHB. While other potential LHB mechanisms exist, they are either not well-developed or have not held up to additional scrutiny (e.g., Chambers 2007;Brasser & Morbidelli 2011;Minton et al 2015a). However, the Nice Model LHB mechanism may be at odds with the existence of our terrestrial planets.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The fragility of the terrestrial planets during a giant-planet instability

Kaib

Chambers

2015

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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Many features of the outer solar system are replicated in numerical simulations if the giant planets undergo an orbital instability that ejects one or more ice giants. During this instability, Jupiter and Saturn's orbits diverge, crossing their 2:1 mean motion resonance (MMR), and this resonancecrossing can excite the terrestrial planet orbits. Using a large ensemble of simulations of this giant planet instability, we directly model the evolution of the terrestrial planet orbits during this process, paying special attention to systems that reproduce the basic features of the outer planets. In systems that retain four giant planets and finish with Jupiter and Saturn beyond their 2:1 MMR, we find at least an 85% probability that at least one terrestrial planet is lost. Moreover, systems that manage to retain all four terrestrial planets often finish with terrestrial planet eccentricities and inclinations larger than the observed ones. There is less than a ∼5% chance that the terrestrial planet orbits will have a level of excitation comparable to the observed orbits. If we factor in the probability that the outer planetary orbits are well-replicated, we find a probability of 1% or less that the orbital architectures of the inner and outer planets are simultaneously reproduced in the same system. These small probabilities raise the prospect that the giant planet instability occurred before the terrestrial planets had formed. This scenario implies that the giant planet instability is not the source of the Late Heavy Bombardment and that terrestrial planet formation finished with the giant planets in their modern configuration.

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“…These results agree with the findings of Raymond et al (2009) who showed that in systems where giant planets are in slightly excited orbits, some embryos may maintain their orbits in the asteroid belt region for 200 Myr of integration. These authors also showed that it is improbable that during the formation of terrestrial planets, a Marssized embryo could have been stranded in the asteroid belt and maintained its orbit for 100 Myr (Raymond et al, 2009;Brasser et al, 2011). Such an embryo would have disturbed the orbits of other bodies in its vicinity, creating a gap in the protoplanetary disk that is not observed in the present day asteroid belt 1 .…”

Section: Formation Of Asteroid Belt Analogsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Terrestrial Planet Formation in a Protoplanetary Disk With a Local Mass Depletion: A Successful Scenario for the Formation of Mars

Izidoro

Haghighipour

Winter

et al. 2014

ApJ

111

105

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Models of terrestrial planet formation for our solar system have been successful in producing planets with masses and orbits similar to those of Venus and Earth. However, these models have generally failed to produce Mars-sized objects around 1.5 AU. The body that is usually formed around Mars' semimajor axis is, in general, much more massive than Mars. Only when Jupiter and Saturn are assumed to have initially very eccentric orbits (e ∼ 0.1), which seems fairly unlikely for the solar system, or alternately, if the protoplanetary disk is truncated at 1.0 AU, simulations have been able to produce Mars-like bodies in the correct location. In this paper, we examine an alternative scenario for the -2formation of Mars in which a local depletion in the density of the protosolar nebula results in a non-uniform formation of planetary embryos and ultimately the formation of Mars-sized planets around 1.5 AU. We have carried out extensive numerical simulations of the formation of terrestrial planets in such a disk for different scales of the local density depletion, and for different orbital configurations of the giant planets. Our simulations point to the possibility of the formation of Mars-sized bodies around 1.5 AU, specifically when the scale of the disk local mass-depletion is moderately high (50-75%) and Jupiter and Saturn are initially in their current orbits. In these systems, Mars-analogs are formed from the protoplanetary materials that originate in the regions of disk interior or exterior to the local mass-depletion. Results also indicate that Earth-sized planets can form around 1 AU with a substantial amount of water accreted via primitive water-rich planetesimals and planetary embryos. We present the results of our study and discuss their implications for the formation of terrestrial planets in our solar system. Subject headings: Planets and satellites: formation; Methods: numericalA planet-forming disk is a complex and dynamic environment. During the course of

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The terrestrial Planet V hypothesis as the mechanism for the origin of the late heavy bombardment

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

Trans-Neptunian Objects as Natural Probes to the Unknown Solar System

Trans-Neptunian Objects as Natural Probes to the Unknown Solar System

The fragility of the terrestrial planets during a giant-planet instability

Terrestrial Planet Formation in a Protoplanetary Disk With a Local Mass Depletion: A Successful Scenario for the Formation of Mars

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